SimBio

SimBio has produced a suite of commercial courseware for introductory college courses in biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and cellular biology. The emphasis is on active learning, or having students learn concepts through virtual experiment or simulation activities. The materials are highly modular, as is the pricing structure. Faculty can adopt entire collections of material on different subjects (ex. ecology), or they can adopt a single chapter, lab, or tutorial or a customized package somewhere in between. Single modules start at $3-5, and there are discounts for buying larger packages, and the company supports individual purchase (students purchase materials directly from website or through the college bookstore), and departmental purchase (college buy materials for students, but may pass on the cost to students in the form of lab or course fees) models.